As a doctor and a mother, Dr. Evelyn Cohen Reis knows better than most people how tough it can be to deal with immunization pain issues in very young children.

"It's a challenge with infants and toddlers because you can't explain to them why you're doing painful procedures, unlike older kids where you can kind of rationalize it," says Dr. Reis, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

It was Dr. Reis' medical school training as well as her personal experience as a parent of two children that initially got her interested in infant pain management. In 2003, she decided to research pain reduction techniques during immunization, and she went on to publish her findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Reis' groundbreaking study is one of hundreds that Dr. Neil Schechter, director of the Pain Relief Program at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, examined for a more recent study published in the journal Pediatrics that recommends pain and anxiety reduction for immunizations be taken more seriously. As far as Dr. Schechter is concerned, it's more than just the desire to spare a very young child pain; it's also important to look at the child's long-term relationship with his or her pediatrician.

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